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What does a 3"x3" piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

04-26-2011, 08:12 AM

Well,
It gives them 15 stitches to put bottom lip back together, a broken nose, concussion, and such a blunt force trauma to the jaw, that it compressed the jaw/skull joint and puts said person on a liquid diet for 2 weeks.

We have done those cuts on our table saws 1000 times, so it comes naturally.

I was making that cut Saturday, a 1" thick piece of Pecan, cutting material to make the Wood Magazine Bulldozer, Crane, and Excavator for my 1 year old son. I was working on the rough cuts off and on between the blanket chest for my wife, and other misc projects. I work on several projects at the same time, hour on this one, hour on that, etc.

Anyway, went to cut a 6" square piece down to 3" square, made the first cut, went to do second cut...

Bam, instant intense crazy pain in my face for what seemed like an instant, then nothing.

Woke up on the shop floor, saw running, such pain in my mouth, put my hand up to my mouth and blood was on my glove, went in the house to get my wife and the aid kit, told my wife to go shut saw off, and waited for her to inspect my wound.

I cant tell you how many times I have made cuts like this, small pieces, zero clearance insert, riving knife, but no paws or guard. Should I have been using a sled, defiantly, should I have....and also have....? hindsight.

As of right now, tremendous pain, headaches, cant move jaw, looking at a long recovery. I know it doesn't sound like alot, but a 3x3x1" piece of Pecan is alot harder, and hits alot harder than you think. While I have had my fair share on injuries as a kid/adult from stupid stuff, this is by far worse than the time I slipped on ice and broke 6 ribs, yeah I mean that.

What am I going to change about my work habits?, well I stopped any and all production of projects, wife and I are re-evaluating safety, workflows, etc. We are making 4 new CC sleds of various sizes for various needs, mandatory safety equipment, as well as safety equipment add ons like rollers for the ts, etc. All tools get this treatment now. This was a pretty big wake up call for complacency and getting comfortable with the surroundings.
Yup, it sucks I am going through this, how much pain and discomfort I am in right now, but if I look at what happened, and use that to help a much more serious injury from happening, then it will be worth going through this to save a limb, or my life.

So, take my experience from this past weekend, and think about how you might have grown comfortable in your shop, how you have strayed away from safety, and what corners you cut.

Re: What does a 3&quot;x3&quot; piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

It just goes to show no matter how familiar with things or how many times one has done some thing, things can go wrong, (and some times how careful one is),

looks like it smacked you a good one, I know one time I had a kickback of a small 1/4 wide board and still have the hole in the garage door (1/4 hard board), (glad it missed me),

glad it was not worst, and you will recover, and you still have all your fingers,

heal fast,

Push sticks/blocks Save Fingers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
attributed to Samuel Johnson
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PUBLIC NOTICE: Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil...plus the current state of the economy............the light at the end of the tunnel, has been turned off.

condolences on your injury. my 2 kickback mishaps weren't anywhere near as traumatic as yours. best wishes for a speedy and full recovery. and take off that glove. i've never seen any articles or advice on table saw safety that recommended having anything on your hands when using a table saw. too much chance of the material getting caught by the blade and dragging the hand into the blade.

there's a solution to every problem.....you just have to be willing to find it.

condolences on your injury. my 2 kickback mishaps weren't anywhere near as traumatic as yours. best wishes for a speedy and full recovery. and take off that glove. i've never seen any articles or advice on table saw safety that recommended having anything on your hands when using a table saw. too much chance of the material getting caught by the blade and dragging the hand into the blade.

Funny thing, my hands are no closer than 18" from the blade. I have many pushsticks of different shapes/sizes, and 20+ pairs of gloves in my shop.

Splinters from the different types of wood....yeah they can suck, changing that blade on the band saw?, yup ive cut my finger, best part is the limited clearance Ridgid gives us to change a blade, and my blades are sharp.

Gloves are second nature for me. Turning on the air filter, or putting on the respirator, yeah I forget those, never my gloves.

I havent used my saw since Saturday, I am a little skittish right now, as I should be, but I do need to jump back on that bike....

It just goes to show no matter how familiar with things or how many times one has done some thing, things can go wrong, (and some times how careful one is),

looks like it smacked you a good one, I know one time I had a kickback of a small 1/4 wide board and still have the hole in the garage door (1/4 hard board), (glad it missed me),

glad it was not worst, and you will recover, and you still have all your fingers,

heal fast,

Funny thing, I always thought the first tool to draw enough blood worthy of stitches, would be the bandsaw...

It felt like, well it felt like getting smacked in the face with a 2x4 going 80mph, I still cant shake that instant of extreme pain.
However, as I continue to see Dr's the bad news keeps piling up, yesterday was a full head xray at my dentist, and the bad news about my jaw, waiting to hear back today if they are going to wire my jaw shut, not getting to sleep at night cause the pain (not from the torn lip, but from cheeck/jaw) is to much, even after taking 2 10/500 hydrocodone's. one constant drawn out headache since sunday, being hungry cause yogurt and applesauce aint cutting it, sharp pain in my ears cause the broken nose had caused a sinus mishap i guess.

I had no idea, that something as small as (if it is to be considered a small injury) getting hit in the face with a small piece of wood, would have a chain reaction of medical issues.

Please, put your knife back on, rebuild or make a cc sled, make a few more sleds of different sizes, be more carefull at your router table, spend 15 times longer on that zero clearance insert for your saw, just take your time and think about the bill im going to get for the Catscan alone, think of my misfortune.......before you start your project for the day.

And also consider this, you might get a shitty ER Dr like I did, and he might sew YOUR lip up like he did mine, and you will look like Joaquin Phoenix, but not receive his paychecks...lol

Comment

Re: What does a 3&quot;x3&quot; piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

Sorry to hear of your injury and hope you recover fully. Every time I hear of an injury like this it gives me pause to reconsider how I am working and reassess my work habits. I keep the guard on except for non-through cuts like dados. But that doesn't guarantee something won't happen that could throw a piece at me and do some harm.

I have always worried about using a sled w/o a equal thickness board on the offcut side of the blade. how do you control the offcut piece if its small when it drops that 1/2 inch and then falls against the spinning blade? Where is it headed...who knows? I use a piece of ply the same thickness as my sled base so the offcut piece justs sits there and does not move. Seems to work and I feel safer when using the sled when I do this.

"When we build let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our fathers did for us."
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

Comment

Re: What does a 3&quot;x3&quot; piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

Wow, sorry to hear about your injury man, and I hope you get better soon.

This does raise a question I've thought about lately..I've just bought my first TS which is the r4512 and its running good and I'm being as careful as I think I can be for a newb to TS's, but I wanted to know if sleds are safe even with no guard?

At least as far as I know you can't put a guard on the sleds that I've seen online.

If sleds are the safe way to go then I'll start making one or two.

Thanks,

Ron

Comment

Re: What does a 3&quot;x3&quot; piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

I am also sorry for your injuries and hope they heal as well and fast as possible. Bad as it was, you were still lucky not to have an eye injury. Thanks for sharing your story because we all need an occassional reminder of how dangerous these machine are and how they must be respected.

I have a 12" compound slide right next to my table saw for small cuts in small wood such as you described. I feel I have better control with a small piece of wood up against the slide fence as I move the blade into the wood. Bottom line is to accept that accidents will happen and take whatever precautions we can to reduce the risks. Your poor wife must have had quite a scare to see you like that. I try to start those conversations with don't be scared, or it looks worse than it is.

Comment

Re: What does a 3&quot;x3&quot; piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

I justed wanted to write this separately. Most of our power tools can cause serious injury. We might use more caution with a stationary table saw and then get injured using a circular saw. These things are spinning so fast that you rarely have a chance to avoid injury once you commit to the cut. I've worked around big printing presses, paper cutters, all sorts of automobile machines and tools, chainsaws and yet the worst injury I ever got happened with a bench mounted grinder. I was taking burrs off some long chisels and the grinder drew the chisel and my finger into the macine. Ruined my pinky finger for life! Took a split second, and it was my own fault. Don't take any tool, power or otherwise for granted.

Wow, sorry to hear about your injury man, and I hope you get better soon.

This does raise a question I've thought about lately..I've just bought my first TS which is the r4512 and its running good and I'm being as careful as I think I can be for a newb to TS's, but I wanted to know if sleds are safe even with no guard?

At least as far as I know you can't put a guard on the sleds that I've seen online.

If sleds are the safe way to go then I'll start making one or two.

Thanks,

Ron

I use a Sharkguard along with my sled. Just raise the blade higher. And when the cut off piece drops, it is on the other side of the guard away from the sled and myself.
Thanks,
Conwaygolfer

Comment

Re: What does a 3&quot;x3&quot; piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

Give it a week or two to heal.....if you didn't have insurance the Dr. would have sewed you up and gave ya an ice pack and sent you home. My point is I think you will be ok but I bet it hurt. Hydrocodone sucks.....tell the Dr. you want mepergan.....its the best dope in the world Dentist prescibed some for me about 5 years or so ago.....I took one and didn't give it time to work before I took another and it knocked me on my azz for about 8 hrs.

Goodluck with your recovery and quit the bar fighting (J/K about the fighting)

Sorry to hear of your injury and hope you recover fully. Every time I hear of an injury like this it gives me pause to reconsider how I am working and reassess my work habits. I keep the guard on except for non-through cuts like dados. But that doesn't guarantee something won't happen that could throw a piece at me and do some harm.

I have always worried about using a sled w/o a equal thickness board on the offcut side of the blade. how do you control the offcut piece if its small when it drops that 1/2 inch and then falls against the spinning blade? Where is it headed...who knows? I use a piece of ply the same thickness as my sled base so the offcut piece justs sits there and does not move. Seems to work and I feel safer when using the sled when I do this.

My sled, or "sleds" as I have 4 ranging in size, all are dual runners. I dont think I could run a sled only on one rail. Smallest sled I have is just wide enough for the base to attach to the rails, largest is 1 1/2 times the size of the table and has 10 t tracks with Rockler clamps. However, the big one was apart, and I just dont know why I didnt use a sled for this cut. Also, I have the riving knife installed, even if I'm using a sled.

Then again, thinking back.....this was a brand new freud blade, and from the first minute of use, it was kicking stuff at every cut, the exact same blade I replaced this one with, never did that.

I spent some time today making replacement sleds, cleaning the shop, moving things around a little today, and getting a good close look at what needs to be revamped.

Comment

Re: What does a 3&quot;x3&quot; piece of kickbacked Pecan do to someone?

Personally, I think it smacks of laziness. If you had bothered to rout a 1/2" roundover on the piece, it wouldn't have caused so much damage

OK, trying my best at levity here. In all seriousness, I'm truly sorry for your mishap, but as others have said, your sight was only an inch or two from jeopardy, so that's a bit of positive news.

I've noticed small pieces have the tendency to get launched, and particularly square pieces, as they rack between the blade and the fence. Or depart the miter gauge, depending on which is in use. Fence by far the worst offender here.

I bought some board buddies recently, and I have been too lazy to put them on. That's as stupid as a friend of my wife who was unexpectedly pregnant. When asked by her mother why she hadn't used birth control, the answer was "it was too expensive". And babies aren't? So guess what I will be making time to do tomorrow?

I justed wanted to write this separately. Most of our power tools can cause serious injury. We might use more caution with a stationary table saw and then get injured using a circular saw. These things are spinning so fast that you rarely have a chance to avoid injury once you commit to the cut. I've worked around big printing presses, paper cutters, all sorts of automobile machines and tools, chainsaws and yet the worst injury I ever got happened with a bench mounted grinder. I was taking burrs off some long chisels and the grinder drew the chisel and my finger into the macine. Ruined my pinky finger for life! Took a split second, and it was my own fault. Don't take any tool, power or otherwise for granted.

Wow, sorry to hear about that Frank. Bench grinders are a often overlooked tool when it comes to safety. Keep the tool rest within 1/8" of the wheel and keeping the wheel dressed are two important safety checks. Another is using the proper wheel for the material being worked. Aluminum should not be worked with the same wheels are steel, grinding wheels for soft metals such as aluminum are constructed differently. Same goes for hand held grinders. Like a file used on aluminum they can clog easily. Then when the aluminum deposits in the wheel heat up and expand they force the wheel apart and it breaks up sending pieces in all directions.

I believe it doing it as safe as possible. I wonder how many have clicked on the link in my sig to the power tool institute safety videos. IF you are new to a tool they are a good place to get started.

"When we build let us think we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work that our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, "See! This our fathers did for us."
John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

Comment

Wow, sorry to hear about that Frank. Bench grinders are a often overlooked tool when it comes to safety. Keep the tool rest within 1/8" of the wheel and keeping the wheel dressed are two important safety checks. Another is using the proper wheel for the material being worked. Aluminum should not be worked with the same wheels are steel, grinding wheels for soft metals such as aluminum are constructed differently. Same goes for hand held grinders. Like a file used on aluminum they can clog easily. Then when the aluminum deposits in the wheel heat up and expand they force the wheel apart and it breaks up sending pieces in all directions.

I believe it doing it as safe as possible. I wonder how many have clicked on the link in my sig to the power tool institute safety videos. IF you are new to a tool they are a good place to get started.

Too much space between the tool rest and grind wheel allowed the chisel to be drawn in. I cannot blame the machine, it was my fault, furthermore I had a couple of warnings as the grinder grabbed the chisel prior to the final assault. Sometimes you just know what you are doing is foolish, but you keep doing it. I was very mad at myself because I did know better, having written page after page of safety instructions for all the printing machines in high school and all the lessons learned working on cars and trucks. I strongly urge folks to become familiar with the tool or machine you are using, never be in a hurry or too lazy to do it right.